• Question: Do you believe that engineering is an equally split job between females and males?

    Asked by Anna to Matthew, Neil, Paula, Pete, Philippa on 13 Mar 2015. This question was also asked by 624sftb43, #Charlie#Ash#Dan#James, #james or charlie all the way, lauren.
    • Photo: Neil Taylor

      Neil Taylor answered on 13 Mar 2015:

      Hi Anna!

      Good question!

      The latest figures that I saw (2013 IET Skills Survey) show that only around 7% of the engineering workforce are female. So in terms of being equally represented, the answer is (unfortunately) no.

      However, I believe that women are equally as capable of becoming engineers as men. What we need to do (as a society) is change some of the unhelpful stereotypes and attitudes that are out there towards engineering.

      The UK is going to be in great need of engineers in the coming decades, and if we want to remain competitive as a country, we will need to address the gender issue in engineering. Things need to change, and we need make sure we are encouraging 100% of the population to become engineers – not just the 50% that we used focus on 50 years ago.

      Hope this helps!

    • Photo: Philippa Jefferis

      Philippa Jefferis answered on 13 Mar 2015:

      Currently there is a definite imbalance in terms of gender in engineering. Yet this isn’t reflective of ability, both men and women are more than capable of engineering.

      We need lots of different people involved in engineering, to bring lots of different ideas to solve the challenges we face.

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